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Friday, February 25, 2011

Once Safe, Mexico's Monterrey Becoming 'City of Massacres''

This video report, by independent news reporter Bill Neely, was recently aired in the United States.

By Bill Neely Feb. 16, 2011PBS.org

As you drive past the steakhouses,sushi bars and skyscrapers there’s not a hint that anything is wrong in Monterrey, marvel of Mexico, once the base for England’s World Cup team. It is after all,one of the jewels of Latin America,consistently voted the best city for business,the nicest to live in,the safest in the continent. Or at least it was.

The illusion is powerful.You can still see the gleaming red Porsches in the showroom window. In fact every one of them is sold. The problem is that their owners don’t want to pick them up. They’re scared. Scared that if they drive their new badge of wealth and achievement home,or around their city,they’ll become an instant target for kidnappers;another victim of the violence that threatens to destroy this city.

Monterrey is changing, fast.

A year ago, its wealthy middle class was still able look on, from afar, at the horror engulfing other Mexican cities, like Tijuana and Juarez. Drug cartels were locked in a deadly embrace that was killing tens of thousands and sucking in tens of thousands of Federal troops and police. But it had nothing to do with Monterrey.

That,however, was always an illusion. Because Monterrey, Mexico’s business capital, was where many drug cartel leaders chose to settle their families. Monterrey was where they laundered much of their money. Monterrey’s wealthy chose to look the other way. But the gated mansions of its rich neighbourhoods contained dirty secrets; their owners knew, literally, where the bodies were buried. Monterrey is now paying the price for years of turning a blind eye to the cartels killers and drug barons in their midst.

I met the mayor of one of these rich suburbs. He had a wonderful office filled with dazzlingly bright painting from fine Mexican artists. He was urbane and articulate,and almost convincing. He said his area didn’t suffer from the problems of other Monterrey districts. He kept a tight grip on security. I left, impressed.

Until there was a shootout streets away from his office a few days later that left seven dead. Nowhere in Monterrey is immune any more.

Last year one of the seven main cartels that are fighting for control of Mexico’s drug trade, decided they would muscle in on Monterrey. The result has been a bloodbath. Not just between cartels- three have now joined forces to fight the resident strongmen from the Zetas- but between the cartels and the Federal forces.

There is a burgeoning war in Monterrey between the state and cartel gunmen. A few days ago a state intelligence chief was murdered in the city.Twenty policemen were shot dead in January. This week a US Customs and Immigration agent was shot dead on the road between Monterrey and Mexico City. The war is coming to the shining city.

Grenade attacks in broad daylight; gunbattles in lovely suburbs; a downtown hotel taken over by dozens of gunmen who took five guests from the sixth floor and murdered them; triple assassinations by the handful; gangs with anti-aircraft guns; a half naked woman hanged from a bridge and left to dangle for half a day; a car bomb outside a restaurant; a city of four million whose nightlife is dying because people are now too scared to go out at night.

It's not where England would want to put their star players any more.

“If Monterrey is lost”,I was told, ”everything is lost". The war that has already claimed 35,000 lives in four years is spreading like a bloodstain. And this city of red Porsches, rare steaks and fine red wine is feeling the heat of its deadly embrace.

This guy is a moron doesn't go in depth of why this things occur, he says "Grenade attacks in broad daylight; gunbattles in lovely suburbs; a downtown hotel taken over by dozens of gunmen who took five guests from the sixth floor and murdered them; triple assassinations by the handful; gangs with anti-aircraft guns; a half naked woman hanged from a bridge and left to dangle for half a day;"

Just off the bat I know la peliroja was the one hang from the bridge bz of her criminal ties. What I'm trying to say is THANK YOU BB FOR KEEPING US BETTER INFORMED!!!

I find that most of the supposed News Organisations do Cut and Paste Jobs from off of the International news wire. CNN, ABC, NBC, Etc.do very little to actually inform anyone about anything, most dont even know where half of the stories come from. and to top it off their readers are complete idiots because of it, just look at their comments sections from time to time. The only news they get are the mass murders, and little about the actual battles being fought and won by the Federal Soldiers.

'This guy is a moron (British ITF press Reporter Bill Neely who PBS has doing their news, too) doesn't go in depth of why this things occur... What I'm trying to say is THANK YOU BB FOR KEEPING US BETTER INFORMED!!!'

'The war that has already claimed 35,000 lives in four years is spreading like a bloodstain.'

Spare us this moronic and cliched comparison of yours PLEASE, Bill.

'And this city of red Porsches, rare steaks and fine red wine is feeling the heat of its deadly embrace.'

Just what type of actual idiot sees Monterrey like this? Monterrey if anything, is not famous for porsches, steak, and fine red wine, but instead famous for perhaps goat meat (cabrito), Chipinque, and a hot climate from Hell. Bill Neely obviously spent way too much time chit chatting in English with death squad mayor, Mauricio Fernandez, who perhaps does drive a porsche, does not eat at El Rey del Cabrito, and is always in an air conditioned enclosure/ 'fort' of some kind???

One episode in the PBS youtube video was telling about Reporter Bill Neely from England. It showed a Monterrey cop talking in English to Bill, and then Bill translated (but was it really him that did the translation? No it was not!) his words to us in English.

Only thing was though, that the next camera shot had the cop still talking to Bill with Neely nodding his head up and down intensely... AND ... a third man translating the cop's words from Spanish to English directly to Neely, that was almost totally chopped out of the video so as not to give away that Bill Neely doesn't actually understand Spanish at all!Look at the video again closely to see what I am talking about...

Doesn't PBS have anybody more qualified than Neely to 'report' to them about Mexico, when the guy doesn't seem to speak or understand Spanish? Monterrey, 'city of red Porsches' my ass, PBS! Get us somebody who doesn't imagine this city in this totally idiotic manner. Good grief.

Good points all, they throw around " 35,000 "killed but dont tell you the majority of them were rapers, criminals, killers, torturers, druggies, smugglers, kidnappers, thieves etc..The real deaths that matter and that we care about are EVERY innocent person that was abused etc..by the ones that deserved to die..

It was good commentary. but not really like investigative reporting. If you ask around here(Monterrey) the peoples stories are wide and varied. From those you speak with who know these people personally. and they tell the stories of their first murder and how it haunts them, to captured pot dealers, forced to sell stolen xboxes. some people will tell you about the rave that was broken up and everyone was robed and some where never heard from again, to small gatherings that turned into days of torture and uncertainty. the stories are many and full documentation would be exhausting and next to impossible.Regardless of media coverage this war on drugs is very real to us. and when taken into consideration the innocent lives that are taken every day. the raped women, the scarred children. the thousands of dead still, yet to be accounted for. could it be safer to legalize these drugs? and let people choose their own demise? Why allow the inflated price of drugs to fuel this war with weapons and income. The current strategy for the war on drugs is not working, It has become a war on the people. the laws are not enforceable because the people do not want them to be enforced. lets wage a war on hunger and homelessness. lets wage a war on child abuse and slavery. lets have peace, I think we're ready. the problem isn't drugs its their value. the problem isn't dope its. hunger and lack of opportunity, and no sign of hope in sight, the people do not feel valuable. take alcohol away from Americans and you're gonna have the trade in the hands of the most despicable. History has proven that. legalize what what once was forbidden and use goes down, after the immediate "party spike". the war is lost. But, you Americans should know its not about winning a war its about making as much money and taking as many liberties as possible. Thanks for the choppers now it really feels like a lost war. If anything is gonna bring these executions to a halt is gonna be the eradication of kidnapping and extortionist cells of organized crime. the people of Monterrey appreciate the help of our military and marines, and many are more than pleased to report suspicious activity, that may result in the saving of innocent lives and killing criminals